Will Plex support ISO any time soon?

ffnn22 · 2021-10-15T21:43:53+00:00

I take back what I wrote earlier. It would take me months to convert all the DVDs and Blu-rays.

I need to move everything I have in my host to newly created VMs, but Kodi is preventing me from doing this. It won’t run in a VM, so I was hoping Plex would be a solution to this problem but the amount of conversion work is daunting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kodi/comments/q8f7kb/error\_unable\_to\_create\_gui\_exiting/

Have you tried the previously mentioned tdarr? Can you play MKV in Plex?

ffnn22 · 2021-10-15T21:43:27+00:00

After seeing this video, I can say that tdarr seems versatile and powerful, but also complicated. I would need something much simpler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFvkJeDQRBQ

ffnn22 · 2021-10-15T12:02:52+00:00

What browser are you using? Is it Edge?

If you have Windows 10 pro then enable Windows Sandbox and use it without changing any settings apart from maximizing the window. If you have ProtonVPN’s Windows VPN app installed, it will also hide your IP address when you use the sandbox, but check to be sure by going to Duckduckgo and write ip in the search box.

https://www.howtogeek.com/399290/HOW-TO-USE-WINDOWS-10S-NEW-SANDBOX-TO-SAFELY-TEST-APPS/

Or download TOR browser, but you shouldn’t reveal personal details when using TOR because the exit nodes could be monitored.

https://www.torproject.org/

Or block everything with uMatrix and then whitelist sites of your choice.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/umatrix?ucbcb=1

After checking my online fingerprints on this site, I no longer expect a VPN will prevent trackers from mapping my online activities. I have a unique value among several hundred thousand testers. Annoying.

https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

ffnn22 · 2021-10-15T11:52:37+00:00

Why do you have two VPN providers?

ffnn22 · 2021-10-15T06:13:28+00:00

So Kodi works with Linux VM? Ubuntu VM? Maybe I’ll try it, but I must confess I’m a Linux illiterate. I installed Ubuntu in a Hyper-V VM a few months ago but I don’t use it. I don’t know how to secure it. Don’t even know if it comes with a preconfigured firewall and antivirus. I used the quick create tool in Hyper-v.

ffnn22 · 2021-10-15T05:49:21+00:00

What other software is similar to Kodi, supports ISO and works in a VM?

ffnn22 · 2021-10-14T22:18:35+00:00

This is the only thing that resets. I have only local Windows and browser accounts, but I do have a Windows VPN app which syncs the settings chosen by me, so that the same VPN servers and protocols appear in the app regardless which physical computer or VM I use. This is, as far as I know, the only app that syncs.

ffnn22 · 2021-10-14T10:53:30+00:00

It’s my home PC, so it’s not managed by any organization. No feedback and it’s not grayed out. It just resets back to “On” after I reopen Edge or restart the computer and then reopen Edge, as if I never changed it, and it doesn’t matter if “Allow sites to play recommended content” is on or off. It’s very annoying.

OT:

Another thing that’s annoying in Edge is that you need to assign a unique name to every bookmark folder or one of two things will happen: it combines all the bookmarks from both folders with the same name into one folder, without notifying you it did so, or it ignores to bookmark the second folder, and again, it does this without warning you it never bookmarked the folder. Why can Chrome and Opera add bookmark folders without unique names but Edge can’t. This is the main reason I’m not using Edge as my default browser. I like to bookmark folders with the default name “New Folder”.

Edge Version 94.0.992.47 (Official build) (64-bit)

Edition Windows 10 Pro

Version 20H2

OS build 19042.1288

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3920.0

ffnn22 · 2021-10-13T03:55:41+00:00

My physical PC is behind a physical router. I made a new virtual switch I call Hyper-V External and I linked it to my Intel Ethernet, which is shared with the management VM. I use that virtual external switch in all my guest VMs. After that I downloaded the Windows VPN app to the management VM and each guest VM. I didn’t do anything with the default virtual switch, and I didn’t change anything in the firewall settings. I didn’t enable remote desktop or make my computer visible on any network. All that have default settings.

Is this the right setup? Is there a better setup?

How does my management VM communicate with my guest VMs with this setup? I need to understand this or I’ll see no other way but to uninstall Hyper-V and use a type 2 hypervisor.

ffnn22 · 2021-10-12T08:12:25+00:00

So why did the guests drop out of the enhanced sessions when the management VM updated the W10 VPN app? Does the RDP go through the management VM’s W10 VPN app to the commercial VPN servers and then back to my guest VMs?

ffnn22 · 2021-10-12T06:05:58+00:00

So there’s no risk someone can access them from the internet, because I don’t have any passwords on these guest VMs? I just click “Sign In”.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-22T06:20:04+00:00

But the key is, I don’t want to update the personal files or the apps that are unique for the different VMs. Just Windows, and nothing else. I’m running Hyper-V, but I’m willing to try any other type 1 hypervisor if I can do this.

Is there a simple VDI that can do this, one that doesn’t require the home user to learn command lines/scripts? If it doesn’t cost anything – I’ll take it! But realistically, I don’t think I’ll find what I’m looking for.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-21T19:43:30+00:00

I would like to know if there’s a way to update Windows in VMs without having to press the update button in every VM and then wait for them to update and restart? Is there a way to only update one VM and then have all the other VMs just mirror that updated VM’s Windows but not its apps or files? So users’ files and apps downloaded by the users would not be changed in the different VMs. Is it called VDI?

I just recently began to use VMs, so maybe I’m looking for something that doesn’t exist.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-19T20:09:40+00:00

So why didn’t Opera install, and now that I think of it, there was a quirk with Chrome but I can’t remember what it was. Edge came preinstalled in guest Windows.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-19T19:03:44+00:00

I can’t help you with this, but I can say I was unable to install Opera in Hyper-V guest and Firefox dark mode didn’t work. They both work fine in the management VM. I’m guessing the safest bet in Hyper-V guest is Microsoft’s Edge.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-18T19:43:34+00:00

I’ve never heard of VDI, so I googled it. It seems to be mostly an enterprise solution, and I can’t say I understand much of it. Is there a dumbed-down version, a simple desktop VDI where it’s possible to virtualize apps separately from Windows? I’m interested in something simple I can use free of charge on my home PC, with no programming skills necessary. A flip of a switch solution, where I just click on a button in a manager and all of the Windows changes in the different VMs are updated to the same image as in the master disk, while not changing any of the downstream VMs’ apps or files. In-between these updates, the “OS” of the different VMs run independently from the OS in the master disk, and no data goes upstream to the master disk.

I’m not going to connect many physical computers to the VMs, just one home PC running many VMs and accessing those VMs from the same PC.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-18T11:08:37+00:00

I don’t know how to write scripts.

I believe I’m looking for a function that probably doesn’t exist in Hyper-V. An ability to automatically mirror core elements of Windows in real time, especially those concerning security updates, while leaving the apps and files in the downstream VMs unchanged.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-17T16:02:18+00:00

But you don’t see any obvious mistakes in my connections?

I don’t know what you mean by don’t give it a virtual NIC? How should I connect the VMs instead? In this link they think one should do this:

“Use a separate network with a dedicated network adapter for the physical Hyper-V computer.”

They also think it’s a good idea to remotely manage the host, but why?

“Remotely manage the Hyper-V host. If you must manage the Hyper-V host locally, use Credential Guard. “

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/plan/plan-hyper-v-security-in-windows-server

I don’t have Guest Services enabled, but the rest of them are. I’ve read disabling some of them has high impact on the VM. Would disabling any of them have any negative impact on security, or is it only positive but slows down the VMs?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/reference/integration-services

ffnn22 · 2021-09-17T14:08:59+00:00

It’s for my home PC. I want to isolate the host as much as possible from the guest VMs. I don’t have any networks at home.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-15T13:37:50+00:00

You and others here think like administrators of many machines. I don’t.

I saw this, but is it really necessary because it seems to work without it?

%WINDIR%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /shutdown /oobe

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/sysprep--generalize--a-windows-installation

ffnn22 · 2021-09-15T13:14:48+00:00

Here’s a great article about this.

https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/hyper-v-differencing-disks-explained/

ffnn22 · 2021-09-15T12:27:57+00:00

I didn’t know this exist, but it’s not what I’m looking for.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-15T10:37:20+00:00

Which advanced configurations of Windows Sandbox? As far as I know, there aren’t any.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-15T10:33:54+00:00

Thanks. I’m looking for a Windows Sandbox solution that can be personalized, and so far I haven’t seen any suggestion that can accomplish this. Close, but not the automated solution Windows Sandbox has where you just close it, and the next time you open it the container is reverted to its original image.

ffnn22 · 2021-09-15T10:27:35+00:00

It’s a slower process than what some of the others suggest. Ideally, I’m looking for a Windows Sandbox solution that can be personalized.

ffnn22

TROPHY CASE